Articles shipped to distributors or retailers generally are packaged in sturdy cartons capable of supporting large quantities of the articles. The cartons are commonly formed of corrugated board, which provides the necessary strength. If it is desired to display the articles, separate display cartons then have to be set up and used. Since this entails an extra expense it is not always feasible to provide separate display cartons.
To reduce packaging costs, combined shipping and display packages have been utilized. The cartons used to form the packages have to be strong enough to support and protect the articles during shipment and in addition be capable of presenting, the articles on display. This has resulted in the use of relatively complicated carton designs which require somewhat involved set-up procedures, often entailing the reassembly of the shipping carton into a different appearing display package. Such combination shipping and display packages are often limited to handling only small numbers of articles.
It would be desirable to be able to ship large quantities of articles in a single shipping carton which can then be very quickly transformed into a display package without requiring intricate or involved set-up procedures.